Cigarettes and marijuana (letter)

We all now know smoking tobacco is harmful, but it took many years to turn around the deceptive marketing image of tobacco as a relaxing and recreational substance.

What tobacco has done to people should be a warning for us all if more marijuana use is encouraged.

Marijuana contains up to four times more cancer-causing chemicals than a tobacco cigarette and is linked to mental illness. It causes its damage when inhaled or when ingested.

No doubt some big businesses would like to market marijuana, and other extremely addictive products, for even more profits than were ever made from tobacco.

The question that has to be asked is: whom will we trust to protect the community from illicit drugs?

The Prime Minister's zero-tolerance and rehabilitation Tough on Drugs policy? The ALP and their supervised drug-use and injecting-rooms? Or the Greens' open-slather drug-use experiment that failed in Europe 40 years ago?